1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates generally to retrieving tactical information during crisis situations. More particularly, the invention relates to a computer-based method and system for storing and retrieving tactical information to respond to crisis situations.
2. Description of Related Art
Sadly, in recent times, we have become all too familiar with crisis situations such as the Columbine High School shooting incident which left several people dead and many more injured. During that incident, when emergency personnel such as Police, Fire and SWAT personnel responded to the situation, these trained men and women faced many uncertainties that significantly added to the potentially life-threatening risks that they faced—uncertainties which adversely impacted their effectiveness in quickly and safely resolving the situation with minimal risk to civilians and themselves.
For example, during the initial response to the Columbine High School incident when police personnel approached the school premises, they were unaware of the safest, or, more significantly, the most dangerous, route to approach the school buildings and parking lots. For example, they were not aware of which areas were most vulnerable to attack by sniper gun fire while approaching a particular building. They were further unaware of key school personnel to contact, nor did they have access to their contact information. Furthermore, emergency personnel were unaware of building construction and structural information that would have assisted them to strategically plan entry into various building locations. These unknowns, and many others, greatly increased the risk to those individuals responding to the crisis.
As a particular example, when emergency rescue personnel finally entered the buildings, fire alarm sprinklers had flooded the interior rooms, an alarm strobe light was flickering, and an audio alarm was loudly sounding. As a result of these intense stimuli, some of the rescue team members who had prolonged exposure to this environment, suffered from vertigo, which adversely affected their perception and balance. Needless to say, this situation detrimentally affected their effectiveness and posed an otherwise unnecessary risk to these individuals. However, because emergency personnel did not know how to shut off the alarm systems, these strategically undesirable conditions persisted, making an already intensely stressful situation even more difficult.
In light of the exemplary difficulties and problems described above, there is a need for a method and system that can effectively provide critical tactical information to emergency personnel during crisis situations. Because such situations inherently involve high levels of stress and panic, it is desirable that such methods and systems be extremely “user friendly” and allow personnel to quickly and easily obtain a variety of different types of information that may be pertinent to address a particular situation or tactical plan.